Plans for a major overhaul of the BP service station at Blackheath have been knocked back by council.
A DA for a $1.8 million demolition and rebuild was rejected because it was an "unsympathetic and unsuitable design" in the context of the neighbourhood, which includes the historic Gardners Inn hotel.
The plans were an overdevelopment of the site which did not "adequately respond to, or address, the site's context, being the historical Blackheath Town Centre which includes heritage items, prominent street trees and landscaping," council found.
It said the landscaping proposed in the DA was insufficient and inadequate and would not contribute to the streetscape.
"The design fails to retain significant existing vegetation on the site such as the plane tree in the north east corner," council said.
The proposal would have demolished the existing buildings and replaced them with a new, modern service station, with six petrol bowsers under cover and a Balmain Coffee Company outlet. It was to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In a letter notifying the Sydney-based architects of the refusal, a council officer wrote that design changes may help get the plans across the line.
But he added: "It is noted that the determinative design issues were given focus by council staff in our correspondence to you during the assessment of the application, as well as in the prior land use advice provided in February of this year. Despite this, the design has remained largely unchanged with these key design issues remaining unresolved."
